


A Slight Delay

by Noteventhat (Facialteeth)



Category: The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Demon Max Lightwood-Bane, Graphic Violence, Heavy Angst, Honestly the description of this one should tell you all you need to know, Illness, M/M, Zombie Like Max Lightwood-Bane, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:28:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25250113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Facialteeth/pseuds/Noteventhat
Summary: What would have happened if Emma and Julian had been late coming back from Thule and they hadn't been able to tell everyone how to cure the warlocks, until it was too late.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 5
Kudos: 28





	A Slight Delay

**Author's Note:**

> Mind the warnings please!

In the end, it seemed like they had tried everything. Catarina and Tessa had worked so hard to find a cure, right until Catarina had fallen unconscious. Magnus had tried his best too. He went through theories after theories, trying to find anything that would help. 

They’d been in tricky situations before. They’d faced awful, earth shattering circumstances before but they always figured it out right at the last second. Magnus always fixed it. He always found the right clue but this time, there didn’t seem to be a right clue to find. Then, Magnus had started to get so sick that he couldn’t work on it anymore. He left Alec a few loose ends to follow up with. 

Alec tried and he sent them to Tessa too. He sat with Magnus when he was so sick that he couldn’t sit up anymore and he asked, pleaded really, for him to think of anything else he hadn’t already tried. Alec couldn’t figure it out on his own. He didn’t know what to do but Magnus didn’t either. 

On one of the last days he was awake, Magnus had murmured, “Maybe, there isn’t a cure after all. Maybe, this is just what’s supposed to happen.” 

Alec had choked a sob into his palm. He hadn't cried until then. He couldn’t cry when there was still time for them to do _something_ but what if Magnus was right? What if there wasn’t anything they could do? If Magnus couldn’t figure it out, if Tessa and all the warlocks at the Spiral Labyrinth- if _they_ couldn’t figure it out then maybe there wasn’t anything that would help. Maybe, it was inevitable. 

Then, Magnus had fallen asleep, just like Catarina had. They’d been expecting it of course. After Cat, they had both known Magnus would fall asleep and not wake up. Except, Alec didn't know it would happen that quick. He had thought they had a little more time and he was still hanging onto the thin hope that they’d figure something out. He would have said so many things to Magnus had he known but he didn’t.

He didn’t tell Magnus he loved him. He didn't tell Magnus he wished they’d gotten married. He didn’t tell Magnus he was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Magnus knew all those things, Alec was pretty sure but still. Alec would have liked to say them one more time before it was all over. 

The thing that hurt even more was that Alec was pretty sure Magnus did know. He was pretty sure Magnus knew that night that he was going to sleep soon and he hadn’t said anything. He hadn’t warned Alec but he had said something. 

He told Alec that the second he heard Catarina had turned, Alec needed to kill him. He made him promise. He knew Alec would wait until the last moment he possibly could. He knew Alec would be the one alone with him when it finally happened and he made Alec promise that when it happened to Cat, that he’d end it then. That he wouldn’t wait and let Magnus turn and catch him off guard. That he wouldn’t wait to see him like that and get risk getting hurt. 

Alec had nodded. He had agreed but still, he hadn’t thought Magnus was going to leave him that night and he hadn’t thought that Catarina was going to turn just twenty four hours later. Alec really thought they had more time but they didn’t.

Jace offered to do it for him. 

Alec turned him down. He promised Magnus he’d do it. Magnus was his partner, his fiance. He would have been his husband. It was up to Alec to do it but still, when he went in and sat on the edge of the bed- when he kissed Magnus one last time and held the blade against his neck, he hesitated. 

Of course, he did. Magnus had told him not to take any chances. He told Alec to cut his head right off. Magnus was powerful. He was the son of Asmodeus. There could not be a chance of Magnus Bane turning into a demon. Alec understood why it needed to be done but still, he hesitated and eventually, Jace came in and took the blade from him. 

He told Alec to turn away. Alec didn’t. He asked if Alec was ready. Alec wasn’t. 

Jace didn’t hesitate like Alec had. When Alec nodded, he brought the blade down swift and fast. Magnus’ neck made a wet crunch that Alec was sure he’d hear in his dreams for the rest of his life. Alec met Jace’s eyes across the bed and saw that he was crying. Alec himself didn’t cry then. Instead, he moved forward and pushed Magnus’ head back into place. It had moved a few inches. 

His hands came away sticky with Magnus’ blood but Alec grabbed the blankets anyway. He pulled them up and pressed them around Magnus’ neck, hiding what Jace had done even as the blood soaked through to remind them. As if they needed a reminder. 

Alec didn’t remember much else about what happened that night. He refused to leave Magnus. He knew that. He wasn’t sure if he cried. He wasn’t sure if he screamed. He knew Jace probably stayed with him. 

He also knew that Jace gotten a call that night. Max was sick. He didn’t tell Alec until the next morning and Alec wasn’t even sure if he was mad Jace hadn’t said anything to him. 

Someone portaled Alec home. Jace came. Clary stayed behind to do something. Help something. Come up with some plan. 

Alec didn’t care about any more plans. He didn’t care about what happened now. Whatever plan they came up with would not save Magnus. Alec had no hope it would save Max. He had another son but what were the two of them without the other half of their family? What could Alec say to Rafael to make anything ever be okay again?

They waited for Max to fall asleep, exactly like Catarina had, then Magnus and then everyone else.

Except, Max never went to sleep like the other warlocks had. He got sick. He stayed in bed but he never fell asleep and stayed asleep. Alec had been hopeful then. He’d thought maybe Max wouldn’t turn. He was little. He only had so much magic in his body. Maybe, he would be okay.

Alec had woken up at Max’s bedside one morning a few days after he’d gotten ill and it had been clear Max had not been spared. Alec heard what was happening to the warlocks who turned. He heard what horrible things they’d turned into. He heard the destruction they were causing and the people they were hurting.

Max did not look like that. He didn’t look like a horrible creature. He looked like Alec’s little boy but wrong. He looked like the baby they’d taken home, except he wasn’t. 

His horns had grown overnight. They’d only grown an inch or two but after watching the millimeters grow over months, an inch or two was a lot. His eyes had darkened. They were no longer the blue Alec had known. Now, they were black. Even his skin had hardened in patches, growing in thick rough scales, ones that reminded Alec of the demons he fought in the streets his whole life. His nails had grown into thin sharp claws but under all that, he still looked like Max.

He still had the baby face that Alec’s son had. His skin was still the same blue. Max hadn’t turned all the way like the other warlocks had but somehow, that was even worse than if he had. 

Alec’s baby was not there anymore. Max didn’t know his name. He didn’t play like he had before. He didn’t know any of the words they’d been working on but he was Max enough that Alec couldn’t hurt him and he couldn’t let anyone else hurt him either. Alec wasn’t even sure if Jace could, even if he let him.

Max was a secret. As far as everyone knew, he’d turned just like all the other warlocks and he’d been put down just like all the other warlocks but Alec and Jace knew different. Max was still there. 

They silenced the room he was kept in. They made sure the door was always locked. Alec clipped his claws with the help of Jace, so he wouldn’t hurt anyone or himself. His claws could easily tear away at the baby skin that hadn’t changed. They could easily slash a throat. They grew back every other day but they managed to keep them clipped most of the time.

Max still liked watching TV. Alec wasn’t sure if he understood it, like he used to. He used to have favorite TV shows. He used to be able to follow along but now, he just seemed to know it made noise and it moved. It captured his attention but maybe only because it was bright. 

He didn’t sleep anymore. He never got tired. He didn’t grow either. Alec wasn’t sure what they were going to do with him when everything settled down. He wasn’t sure how he’d keep Max a secret even from Rafael. He wasn’t sure if he could care for Rafael now, the way he deserved to be cared for but they’d have to figure it out.

Then, he heard Julian and Emma had come home and once again, he was filled with hope. It was the lake water. Lake Lyn would have saved them all, if they’d just gotten back sooner. They’d gotten side tracked in some other world Alec didn’t care to hear about. 

They got lake water for Max or Jace did. Alec didn’t ask how he did it without anyone asking questions. He just took it and with Jace’s help, they made Max drink it. It was hard. Max didn’t eat or drink anymore but they finally got it down his throat and then, they gave him more when nothing happened. 

They waited for hours but nothing changed and Max didn’t come back. He just stood, tied by the back of his pants to the bed, growling at the TV, giggling sometimes and stretching his cut claws toward the flat people, like he wanted to grab them. 

Alec knew he didn’t just want to grab them. It was why they’d started clipping his claws in the first place. Max wanted to sink his claws into them. He probably didn’t even know why he wanted to do it. He was just a baby, if any part of that baby was still in him. He just knew he wanted to sink his claws into people. He knew it would feel good. He knew it was what he was supposed to do.

Alec turned the TV off after a while. He got sick of listening to it but then of course, Max turned and reached towards him instead. 

Alec never left the TV off for too long.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still reading Queen of Air and Darkness, so keep that in mind if there are any relevant facts that come up that might have changed the way I wrote this had I finished the book(s) first.
> 
> Also, I'm pretty sure this is the first 'canon' like thing I've ever written specifically for the books. I normally write in a weird mesh of the books and the show or just the show but... Hey, book angst!


End file.
